Democratic candidates still on the softball field.
WASHINGTON (AP) Republican presidential contenders railed against abortion rights on Saturday as they courted religious conservatives, promising Christian values would guide their personal decisions and public policies should they win the presidency.
“My faith has guided me for my entire life, and I don’t suspect that’s going to change,” former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said after ticking off a list of abortion restrictions enacted while he led Texas. “No candidate’s done more to protect unborn life.”
Perry was among nearly a dozen presidential hopefuls in Washington this week for one of the nation’s premier gatherings of Christian activists.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush called his Catholic faith “an organizing part of my architecture.” Ohio Gov. John Kasich said religion gives him more empathy toward the poor. And Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas cited his Christian values in lashing out at the Supreme Court.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference began the day after nine African-Americans were shot to death inside a historic South Carolina church, offering a grim backdrop to the three-day meeting designed to give religious activists a closer look at the large class of GOP candidates and others considering bids.
Beyond decrying the shootings in South Carolina, presidential prospects offered religious conservatives an intimate look at the role of faith in their public lives.
Speaking on Friday, Bush noted that he converted to Catholicism after marrying his Mexican-born wife. The religion, he said, has been “an organizing part of my architecture, if you will, as a person and certainly as an elected official.”
He highlighted his work to institute new abortion restrictions during his administration, which included strict parental notification laws and a ban on “partial-birth” abortion. He also cited his fight for the life of Terry Schiavo, a Florida woman kept in a vegetative state for 15 years on life support. While her husband wanted her feeding tubes removed, Bush ordered the tubes reinserted only to be overruled by a federal court.
“I insisted that we build a culture of life,” Bush said of his eight years as Florida governor.